This invention relates to a combined voicemail/EMail and private branch exchange (PBX) system and method for providing voice response to an EMail message.
Hand-held computing devices with integrated telephones have been available for some time. The purpose of these devices is to allow mobile users to perform simple operations, such as sending or receiving EMail, and accessing information services, without carrying a bulky laptop computer. Unfortunately, even though these devices are significantly smaller than the equivalent laptop computer/cellular phone combination, they are too bulky to suit the demands of most users, and have therefore been poorly received in the market. The bulk of these early devices is the perceived requirement of a QWERTY keypad and large, by cellular phone standards, display, usually in the form of a LCD. The developers of these first generation devices believe that these components are necessary in order to support the primary data application: sending and receiving EMail.
In order to appeal to the broader market, it is necessary that these devices support voice and EMail, and that they be equivalent in size and cost to traditional cellular phones. This is not as difficult as it may seem. First, voice operation is a given. Second, one may argue that EMail sent to mobile users is different than that which is sent to fixed-base users in that the length is generally constrained to several sentences, and attachments are not included. This difference in message composition exists because present-day wireless devices, such as alphanumeric pagers, typically are not capable of processing attachments, the relatively small display size limits the amount of text that is displayed at one time, and the scrolling capability is limited by user patience.
Alphanumeric paging and digital cellular (DC)/personal communications system (PCS) operators offer infrastructure-based services which allow conventional EMail, up to several hundred characters in length to be routed to wireless users. The 3-4 line screens, present on many high-end DC and PCS voice phones are large enough to allow perusal of short text messages. The reception of an EMail message by a user of a DC/PCS device may be supported on a conventional voice phone platform, already in place.
The problem arises when a user wishes to reply to a message. Dedicated QWERTY keyboards consume excessive space, handwriting recognition is cumbersome, and requires the use of a stylus which is likely to be misplaced, and reliable voice recognition requires resources which cannot be deployed, given the previously-mentioned size and cost constraints.
Key industry players have indicated that future voicemail/EMail products will support a reply mechanism which allows the recipient to view the text-based EMail and then compose a voice memo in reply. The voice memo is captured by the device and stored as a compressed audio file which is then mailed to the message originator. While this may be one solution to the problem, it may not be a viable business solution to those millions of business users throughout the world who continue to us legacy PCs, i.e., x486-based and older equipment, that will not adequately support audio file presentation. For this scheme to work, the recipient must have access to a multimedia-capable PC in order to playback the reply. Furthermore, most cubicle-resident business users would prefer not to have sensitive EMail xe2x80x9cbroadcastxe2x80x9d to co-workers who happen to be listening nearby. Neither is the problem solved in the case where a user polls EMail with a DC/PCS device having limited display, and no capability to play a voice file.
The majority of the voice-related EMail prior art is in the field of voice transmission over the internet, using internet protocol (IP). The prior art disclosed various gateways which offer the inverse to the invention described herein, namely, the conversion of voice-to-data in preparation for real-time transmission across an IP network.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,058, to Blumhardt et al., granted Mar. 10, 1998 for Apparatus and method for routing communications to a variety of CPE [Customer Premises Equipment] devices, uses a database in the switch to route various call types, voice, fax, data, etc., to the proper type of CPE.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,717,742, to Hyde-Thomson, granted Feb. 10, 1998, for Electronic mail system having integrated voice messages, describes a unified in box which allows presentation of voicemail and EMail messages in a consolidated summary xe2x80x9cscreenxe2x80x9d.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,670, to Campana et al., for Electronic mail system with RF communications to mobile processors, describes an EMail system using RF information transport for at least one portion of the overall communication link.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,684, to Goodwin et al., granted Apr. 8, 1997, for Method and apparatus for consistent user interface in a multiple application personal communications device, describes a MMI for a PMC type of device which maintains a consistent look-and-feel independent of the communication link, wired or wireless, in use.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,608,786, to Gordon, granted Mar. 4, 1997, for Unified messaging system and method, describes a unified in box system which uses a data network such, as the internet, for intermediate legs.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,659, to Hyde-Thomson, granted Sep. 17, 1996, for Electronic mail system having integrated voice messages, describes an integrated EMail system which accepts analog voice input from public switched telephone network (PSTN) interface and converts it to text format.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,411, to Klein, granted Dec. 26, 1995, for Multimedia integrated message arrangement, uses text-to-speech processing to convert text-based EMail to an audio representation which is routed to a voicemail system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,735, to Herrero Garcia et al., granted Feb. 16, 1993, for Integrated voice-mail based voice and information processing system, describes a system for processing real-time inbound analog voice calls only.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,291, to Teague, granted Apr. 4, 1992, for Transmitting binary data files using electronic mail, describes a compression method using base-85 compression protocol.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,798, to Cohen et al., granted Jun. 6, 1989, for Communication system having unified messaging, describes a unified in box system wherein the user must designate the type of retrieval device in use, phone, terminal, etc. A server then formats all messages destined to appear on a specified device.
A system for providing a voice response to an EMail message, wherein the voice response is generated by a thin client device and transmitted to a cellular, or similar, service and then to a world-wide communications network, includes a conversion mechanism co-located with the cellular service for converting the voice response into a voice data file which is transmitted over the world-wide communications network; an EMail server connected to the world-wide communications network for receiving conventional EMail and voice data files; an EMail-to-voicemail gateway for identifying voice data files; a voicemail interface for receiving voice data files from said EMail-to-voicemail gateway and converting said voice data files into voice streams; a voicemail system, including recipient voicemail boxes; for directing said voice streams into a recipient""s voicemail box.
A method of generating a voicemail message with a thin client device and transmitting that voicemail message over an EMail system, includes sending a voice mail message over a wireless phone system; converting the voice mail message into a voice data file; transmitting a the voice data file over a world-wide communications network; receiving the voice data file at an EMail server; separating the voice data file from EMail files; changing the voice data file into a voice stream; and directing the voice stream to a recipient""s voicemail box.
An object of the invention is to provide a mechanism by which audio EMail replies may be forwarded to a recipient""s voicemail box for convenient manipulation.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system and method for providing replies to EMail messages over a world-wide communications network.
A further object of the invention is to provide a system and method for providing replies to EMail messages over a world-wide communications network using portions of existing infrastructure.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system and method for providing replies to EMail messages over a world-wide communications network using existing thin client devices.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become more fully apparent as the description which follows is read in conjunction with the drawing.